When the summer heat starts setting in, many people turn toward swimming to take the edge off. This month’s blog offers three different ideas to help reinforce various math skills, from basic operations to money to geometry, all centered around one of summer’s favorite activities. Just make sure your mathematicians are good swimmers and have reviewed pool safety rules before they hop in!
Beach Ball Operations
Although you don’t have to be swimming to enjoy this first activity, it certainly adds a challenging element of fun. All you need for this educational twist on a summer classic is a black permanent marker and a beach ball. Simply use the marker to write various numerals on the ball. For a classic 6-striped, full-sized ball, we suggest at least three numbers per stripe: one toward the top, one toward the middle, and one toward the bottom. You can modify the numbers based on the operations you plan to cover, keeping in mind that multiplication facts usually don’t extend past 12. Repeated numerals are both expected and encouraged to maximize the possible combinations!
Once the ball is prepared, start playing catch. When a child catches the ball, they’ll note which two numerals are closest to their hands. From there, it’s time to practice math facts! Try finding the sum, difference, and even product of the numbers. If the numbers allow it, you may even ask for the quotient. Once the child has answered correctly, the ball can pass to the next person.
Diving for Change
Physical pennies have gone out of style, but they can still be an important component of this next swimming pool game. Gather a handful of change that includes multiple of each coin type—pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, and even dollar coins if you have them—then toss the coins into the pool and prepare to become a skilled pool diver.
The most straightforward variation of this activity is to dive and collect as many coins as possible before coming up for air. Once a child resurfaces, they must calculate the total value of the collected coins. Then they can scatter the coins and try again. Multiple children can play this game and attempt to collect the greatest value, or a single child can play and try to outdo themselves on each dive.
A more challenging version of the game requires shouting out a desired value first, such as $0.86, then diving as many times as it takes to gather a correct combination of coins to reach that amount.
Pool Perimeter, Area, and Volume
For older children, swimming pools are ideal for exploring the relationship between perimeter, area, and volume. Both already-installed pools and those for sale in stores are perfect for this real-world geometry lesson. All you’ll need is a calculator, some scrap paper, and a measuring tape for any already-installed pools you visit.
Pools in boxes or on store shelves list their dimensions. Ask your child to use the length and width to calculate perimeter for rectangular pools. If they don’t make the connection themselves, you can remind them that there are two of each side! After the perimeter is calculated, move on to the surface area. After that, add the third dimension to the calculation and find the volume. This is a great time to point out that volume can be understood in different ways, such as cubic feet vs gallons. Once kids have performed the same set of calculations on different pools, you can also point out how greatly even small changes in dimensions can impact surface area or volume.
The same calculations can be done on existing pools, but you’ll need to help with taking measurements first. You may also need to stress that volume will be an estimate if a pool has different depths, i.e. a shallow end and a deep end.
If children have already started studying circles and cylinders in class, you might try an advanced version of this activity by using circular pools as well!
